BlackBerry, RIM Losing Juice in the Enterprise: 10 Reasons Why

NEWS ANALYSIS: Research In Motion and the company's ubiquitous BlackBerry devices were the enterprise's favorite product. RIM also had success providing much-needed services. But nowadays, it can't get any love.

Research In
Motion isn't what it used to be. The BlackBerry maker, less than a decade ago,
was able to solidify its position in the enterprise by delivering high-quality
products to corporate users who had yet to fully realize how important mobile
devices could be to their bottom line and corporate productivity. The
BlackBerry, along with the enterprise services RIM provides, proved to be a
revolutionary product for the corporate world. And globally, employees became
far more productive than they had previously been.
But in recent
years, some things have changed. Whereas RIM was once the only mobile company
that mattered to enterprise users, now it's just one of many that the corporate
world is becoming increasingly disappointed by. The once-dominant mobile firm
is being replaced by Apple, Google, Motorola and countless other companies that
are starting to effectively deliver what the corporate world is after.

So, how did
this happen? More importantly, how did it happen so suddenly?

Here's a look
at 10 factors that cased the once high-flying company to come back down to earth.
1. The BlackBerry is a bore
Years ago, the
enterprise didn't care about how a product looked or whether it was
consumer-friendly. Back then, it was all about functionality. But nowadays,
things are much different. The corporate world doesn't necessarily want to give
employees boring, old products. And unfortunately for RIM, that's just what it's offering.

2. Apple is making inroads
Apple was once
believed to be a consumer-only product provider. But that has changed over the
last couple years as the company has gone a long way in making its iPhone and
iPad appeal to enterprise users. Now, many more companies are at least
considering adopting the iPhone.
3. So is Android
Even more
surprising is that Android-based devices have started to become enterprise
favorites. Companies like Motorola and Cisco Systems have provided smartphones
and tablets, respectively, that corporate users want, and RIM has so far been
unable to stop them from making inroads. It's a real issue for the BlackBerry
maker.
4. Is RIM too consumer-oriented?
Oddly, RIM has
tried to become more consumer-friendly over the last few years. The trouble
started when it launched the ill-fated Storm to take on the iPhone, and
followed that up with the similarly dreadful Storm 2. Add that to the
BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, which was marketed to both consumers and enterprise
users, and it quickly becomes clear RIM has a bit of an identity crisis right now.

Don Reisinger is a freelance technology columnist. He started writing about technology for Ziff-Davis' Gearlog.com. Since then, he has written extremely popular columns for CNET.com, Computerworld, InformationWeek, and others. He has appeared numerous times on national television to share his expertise with viewers. You can follow his every move at http://twitter.com/donreisinger.